Migration (Early Modern)

• The Reformation was a religious movement that began as an attempt to reform the Catholic Church
• Many people believed the Catholic Church was too wealthy and had too much influence over society
• In 1517, Martin Luther wrote out a long list of criticisms of the Catholic Church, called the Ninety-Five Theses, and nailed it to the door of his local church
• Luther attracted many followers as his ideas spread across Europe, with his followers known as Protestants because they protested against the Catholic Church
• By 1529 there were two main Christian groups in Europe: the Catholics and the Protestants
• England's king in 1529 was Henry VIII, who was a strict Catholic, but he wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the Pope refused his request
• To secure a divorce, Henry passed the 1534 Act of Supremacy, which created the Church of England and made him Supreme Head of the Church
• England was no longer a Catholic country
• When Henry VIII died, England experienced decades of religious turmoil but, when Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, she made England Protestant, which it has remained to this day
• The Reformation led to unrest across Europe. Catholicism remained the main religion of those in power, and many protestants suffered religious and political persecution
• Huguenots


  French Protestants
• From the middle of the 16th century, Huguenots saw England as a place of safety
• The first Huguenot arrivals came from northern France and were welcomed by the Protestant King Edward VI
• King Edward VI issued a Charter on 24 July 1550 allowing a French Protestant church to be founded in London
• More Huguenots arrived after the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572
• By far the greatest number of Huguenots (around 50,000) arrived between 1670 and 1710
• In 1681, King Charles II offered Huguenots denizen status, giving them the right to live in England with certain rights of citizenship
• A contributing factor to the large number of Huguenot migrants was King Louis XIV of France making it illegal for French people to be Protestants
• Most people welcomed the Huguenots to England because they were skilled migrants
• Many Huguenots, particularly after 1670, came to join relatives and friends who had been running successful businesses in England for years
• Churches collected money for poorer refugees and food kitchens fed them until they could settle and find work
• In 1709, the government passed the Foreign Protestants Naturalisation Act, allowing European protestants to live in England with full civil rights if they swore loyalty to the Crown
• The act was meant to attract wealthy entrepreneurs and skilled craftspeople from France and Holland
• Later that year a huge refugee camp appeared on the outskirts of London, with thousands of people from the Palatinate region of Germany living in tents provided by the British government
• Most of the Palatinate refugees were poor farmers and their families who were looking for a better life after a run of bad harvests and wars
• Some were hoping to migrate to America, as the British-owned Carolina Company had advertised in Germany for migrants to settle there
• Between May and June 1790, almost 12,000 Palatines and other German Protestants migrated to England
• At first, the public were generous in their support, but gradually attitudes changed
• Jews were officially expelled from England in 1290, but some managed to remain in the country, either by converting to Christianity or by practising their faith in secret
• By the 1650s, the situation had changed, as England was now a Protestant republic under Oliver Cromwell
• In 1655, a rabbi from Amsterdam, Menasseh ben Israel, visited Cromwell to argue for Jews to be allowed back into England
• Cromwell's council decided the 1290 expulsion order had been issued by royal prerogative and not passed by Parliament, so it only applied to Jews living in England at the time
• Many Jews were happy to be let back into England, as they were suffering from persecution in Europe
• As a result of the religious changes in England, Jews saw the country as a tolerant place that would be safe for them
• In the 15th-century, various European countries began to explore across the globe as they looked for new sources of wealth
• In 1496, Henry VII gave the adventurer John Cabot the mission of finding new lands and new sources of wealth for England
• When English explorers failed to find their own sources of gold and silver, another way of getting wealthy was needed: privateering
• English monarchs granted ships and their sailors called privateers permission to attack foreign ships and steal the gold and silver they were carrying
• Sailors who didn't have royal permission to plunder, and kept any treasure they stole for themselves, were known as pirates
• Voyages of 'discovery' and privateering led, in time, to the establishment of English colonies in the Americas, in the Caribbean and North America